























r> .''-r*;^^' 



"Of 






"OP- 



> .N^^^-. '*^^/ .^^'%. --^ 



^0' 






r "'^^ %' 



^HO. 



.'io^ 



. j,^^^ 












' /\!i^*^^ o°^-i^jLl*% /Vii^/^ 0°^ 















"t 
1^^°^ 



^o,/:^T*\o^ 






"^ **TT;«*\aP 









CORRESPOJVDEIVCE 



BETWEEN 



5"iillS31© (^0 llniBSTim^ ©IF SEHSJS^'lSriSIE'ir^ 



AND SEVERAL INDIVIDUALS OP THE 



SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 



HAVERHILL : 

PRINTED AT THE ESSEX GAZETTE OFFICE. 

1835. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



5th month, 2Sth, 1835. 
James G. Birney : 

Esteemed Friend,— The undersigned, members of the New 



measure. 



England Yearly Meeting of Friends, being, in some 
acquainted with the grievous sufferings of more than two millions 
of our fellow-beings, who are unjustly held in degrading bondage 
m these United States ; and being aware of the distressing fact, 
that more than two hundred infants are daily born to an inheri- 
tance of ignorance and chains ; and feeling, in common with 
our fellow professors, a deep interest in the cause of their univer- 
sal emancipation ; and as deep an interest for the emancipation 
of their masters from that spirit of oppression, which lays the 
iron hand of despotism on these new-born infants, and claims 
them as their property, are induced to address thee on this im- 
portant subject for the purpose of procuring some further infor- 
mation for the benefit of ourselves and others. We are also in- 
duced to make this application more particularly to thee, from 
having been informed, that thou hast always resided in the slave- 
holding States ; that thou hast been, for the most of thy life, a 
sjaveholder ; and that thou hast recently, from a deep convic- 
tion of the great sinfulness of the whole system of slavery, eman- 
cipated all thy slaves, and art now employing them as hired la- 
borers, paying them " what is just and equal ;" and that thou 
art now devoting a great portion of thy time to persuade others 
to do the same. We are further encouraged to make this appli- 
cation to thee, from having been informed^ that thou wast for sev- 
eral years engaged as Agent of the American Colonization Soci- 
ety, which rendered it necessary for thee to travel in several of 
the slaveholding States ; which, with thy own experience as a 
slaveholder, must have given thee an opportunity of becoming 
thoroughly acquainted with the whole subject of slavery. 

If thou wilt favor us with thy opinion, in reply to the follow- 
ing questions, and malce such other remarks, as the importance 



of the subject may suggest, thou wilt not only greatly oblige us, 
but also, as we believe, subserve the cause of truth and humanity. 

I. What effect would it have on the slaveholders to pro- 
mulgate at the North, the doctrine, that it is their duty, imme- 
diately to emancipate their slaves ? 

II. If a general interest should be felt, and openly manifest- 
ed in the United States for the immediate emancipation of the 
slaves, and should the slaves be made acquainted with the efforts 
in their behalf, what effect would this knowledge have upon their 
conduct ? 

III. Is any scheme of gradual emancipation calculated, in 
thy opinion, to meet the present evils, and avert the dangers 
which threaten from the continued existence of slavery ? 

IV. Would danger of personal violence to the master, or 
depredation on property be increased or diminished by the im- 
mediate emancipation of all the slaves ? 

V. If die slaves were emancipated, would they be able to 
provide for themselves, and would diey generally become good 
citizens, if proper opportunities were afforded them, and is it 
necessary to delay emancipation at all for the purpose of pre- 
pai'ing them for freedom ? 

VI. Dost thou think it would have been right for thee to 
have received from government or from individuals, if they had 
been disposed to offer it, any compensation for ceasing from the 
sin of slavery ? 

VII. Has the American Colonization Society, through its 
principles and measures, had any visible influence upon the sys- 
tem of slavery, and upon the hearts of slaveholders ; and if so, 
has that influence been productive of good or evil ? 

We wish to be understood, that our views are, that, if any 
duty is made plain by the Light of Truth, to any society or indi- 
viduals, it is incumbent upon that society and those individuals 
to carry their convictions immediately into practical effect, ir- 
respective of evils which others may apprehend, believing, that 
He, who makes the path of duty plain, will bless the labors of 
His servants for good. 

Thy Friends, 

JOHN WINSLOW, 
EFFINGHAM L. CAPRON, 
JOSEPH HEALY, 
JOHN G. WHITTIER, 
MOSES A. CARTLAND. 

To James G. Birnev, of Danville^ Ky. 



ANSWER. 

Boston, May 29, 1S35. 

Esteemed Friends, — To the several inquiries made of me in 
your letter of yesterday, I take great pleasure in replying — though 
from my worn down state of health, and want of sufficient time, 
I shall not be able to make as full answer as their importance 
demands. To the first, — which, as well as all the others, I 
shall refer to without copying — I would say, 

It would, in my judgment, produce great effect on the slave- 
holders, to promulgate at the North, the doctrine, that it is their 
duty immediately to emancipate their slaves. Many of them, 
doubtless, would be deaf to this admonition of Christian friend- 
ship, and repel it as officious and interm.eddhng ; but I believe, 
it would find access to the best consciences of the South, and 
that its tendency would be, still further to arouse consciences 
that are already a good deal agitated. 

II. The most effectual mode of preserving tranquillity 
among the slaves of the South will be, a knowledge of the fact, 
that efforts of a peaceful and christian character are making in 
their behalf. Just in proportian as sxich efforts are urged, and 
give hope to the slaves, that the time of their deliverance draws 
nigh, will be their patient continuance in their present state, — 
lest an act of indiscretion in them defeat what has been already 
gained, mortify and disappoint their friends, and discourage them 
from making renewed exertions. I doubt not that the tranquilli- 
ty of the British West-Indies, so far as it was preserved for the 
last ten years, was secured by the influence of the Philanthro- 
pists in the mother country. The slaves with whom I have 
conversed on the subject of the present efforts, have, without 
exception, looked upon their sober and peaceful demeanor as 
an essential contribution on their parts, to their success. 

III. I consider all schemes of gradual emancipation as ut- 
terly unfit to meet the present evils, and to avert the dangers 
which threaten from the continued existence of slavery. They 
are all, in the first place, inoperative on the master — they let go 
his conscience, by not insisting on immediate repentance for 
present sin. In the second place, they produce no good effect 
on the heart and mind of the slave. Founded on expediency, 
or policy, as all such plans must be, from their very nature, the 
slave will feel no respect for the motive which originates them. 
He will consider, that nothing has been done from a regard to 
his rights or his interests, but all for the advantage and benefit of 
the master. The master, uninfluenced by christian principle in 
the act of emancipation, would not, in all probability, follow his 
freedman with christian effort for his moral and intellectual im- 
provement, — the freedman feeling no respect for the motive? of 



the master In giving him his liberty, would naturally, as it ap- 
pears to me, reject his influence. Thus, they would be left, 
unbound by any tie that would lead to continued kindness on the 
one side, and respect and grateful recollections on the other. 
Any plan of emancipation, however gradual it might be, would 
be better than perpetual slavery ; but surely it is the great desid- 
eratum of any plan, that it leave the parties friends^ as freemen. 
None will effect this which is not founded on Christian principle 
— and there can be none, so far as I am enabled to see, which 
so fully recognises Christian principle as its basis, as that which 
urges immediate emancipation. 

IV. There would be no danger of personal violence to the 
master from emancipation, brought about by Christian benevo- 
lence. Such an apprehension is the refuge of conscious guilt. 
Emancipation, brought about on the principle above mentioned, 
I hesitate not to say, would, in most instances, where the supe- 
rior intelligence of the master was acknowledged, produce on 
the part of the beneficiaries, the most entire and cordial reliance 
on his counsel and friendship. I do not believe that I have any 
warmer friends than my manumitted slaves — none, I am sure, if 
sacrifices were called for, who would more freely make them, 
to promote my happiness. 

The injustice which the slave feels as done him in taking the 
avails of his labor, leads him to take clandestinely, what he per- 
suades himself he is entitled to. He has comparatively no char-^ 
acter to lose, no ultimate object, for tlie attainment of which, 
the building up of a good character would contribute. As a 
freeman, character would be essential to him — his earnings would 
be his ; his house, his furniture, his comforts would be his,— ^ 
his wife, his children would be his ; the apprehension of forcible 
separation would depart, and he would have every motive that 
ordinarily influences men to build up a good name for worth and 
honesty. The depredations on the masters' property hy slaves, 
I should suppose, are tenfold what they would be by the same 
slaves made freemen. 

V. The slaves, if emancipated on any terms, would be able 
to provide for them.selves and their families. If they should be 
kindly treated by their former masters, and christian benevolence 
should make the same efforts for their improvement, that are 
made in many places for the improvement of the distant heathen, 
— they would not only provide for themselves, but, with such 
opportunities, become good citizens. I have made frerpient in- 
quiry as to the number of paupers among the colored people of 
Kentucky, amounting to nearly 5000 ; — I have, as yet, heard of 
but one. I think, it is a rare thing, so far as I have had oppor- 
tunity of observing in slave Slates, to see free colored persons 
arraigned in courts, to answer to criminal accusations. My own 



manumitted slaves, at the end of the first year of their employ- 
ment on wages, will have used but half the amount which they 
are to receive. They have not fallen into disorderly or vagrant 
habits ; but have manifested — at least the younger ones — an in- 
creased desire for knowledge, and for attendance on the Sabbath 
Schools and the common ministrations of the Sanctuary. To 
delay emancipation, in order to attain the greatest good, it is 
believed, will result from it, is, in my judgment, but to accumu- 
late the difficulties now in the way, and to delay to a remoter 
period its full consummation. 
X VI. Having emancipated my slaves from a full conviction, 
that tlie bondage in which I was holding them was sinful, I con- 
ceive, I have no greater right to ask for compensation from any 
quarter, than I would have in any other case, where a similar 
conviction would lead me to return to my neighbor any property 
to which he had an unquestionable right, and which I by superi- 
or power had withheld from him. The claim of " compensation, " 
it seems to me, can be fairly sustained only on the ground, that 
slavehokling is not sinful. Would not the Ephesian converts, 
who at once abandoned their " curious arts," and burned the 
"books" which contained instructions in them, have been as 
equitably entitled to compensation, as the slaveholder, who aban- 
dons 3. property equally condemned by God's law, and commits 
to the flames, the charter by which he has hidierto supported 
his groundless claims .'' 

VII. It has been my opinion, from the best and most im- 
partial observation I could make, diat the principles, measures, 
and doctrines entertained, pursued and inculcated by the advo- 
cates of " Colonization," so far from having any "visible influ- 
ence upon the system of slavery" for its removal, have rather 
tended to confirm and strengthen it. These propositions, — that 
slavery may be innocently continued till the slaves can be re- 
moved and comfortabl) provided for in Africa — the danger to 
the Colony, of removing many to it very soon — its slow growth, 
the great comparative increase of the slave population — have re- 
moved each particular slaveholder's duty so far in advance of 
him, that in the distant haze, it becomes scarcely a discernible 
point. Beside this, it has tended in a great degree, as I believe, 
to raise up and strengthen prejudice against the free colored 
people of our country. The whites who are under the influence 
of this prejudice think, the free colored people ought to remove 
from the country of their birth — because they (the whites) wish 
it, and not because it is a desirable thing to tJiose who are called 
upon to act. 

I have thus answered, — much more briefly however, than I 
would under odier circumstances — your several inquiries. I 
'irust, what I have done may contribute somewhat to the advance- 



8 

ment of ihe great cause of humanity in which so many Christian 
heads and hearts are now so deeply interested. But have not 
you, and the particular church of which you are members, long 
since purified yourselves from all participation in the sin of slave- 
holding ? To your honor be it said, you were the first to cleanse 
your skirts from this foul stain. But is there nothing more for 
you to do ? Will you, who can speak as having authority, in no 
wise rebuke thy neighbor, but suffer sin to be upon him ? Will 
you, who, having purified yourselves, and are, therefore, unre- 
bukeable, sit quietly by, clothed in the heavenly armor of inno- 
cence, and behold undisturbed a system shooting up into giant ' 
size, and acquiring giant power for destruction — for destruction 
not only of its victims, but of those who lead the victims to its 
bloody altars ? May I not persuade myself you will not.'' 

I know of no class of persons who would be more favorably 
heard by the slaveholder than the Friends. They are regarded 
as cool and dispassionate ; — and from the circumstance of their 
not having owned slaves, for so long a time^ they are esteemed 
the best and most impartial witnesses. That the above may 
subserve the cause of truth and humanity, is the sincere wish of 
your friend, 

JAMES G. BIRNEY. 
To John Winsloic, 

Effingham L. Capron^ 

Joseph Healy^ 

John G. WhiUkr, 

JMoscs A. Cartland. 



54 w 




r 



^ "o^ ''^^ ''-y 

^ %/ 'Mi'. \>/ 



^J-r-, il 



.'/J^*. "^ 















''^^* ^^^ ... % '"•* 



*• .4,^""^^. ^»K*- ^^'^^^ •; 






• ^ ^ *tf 









5* /^ 









^o. **Trr.'\<o 






^o. 









55> ^A 









J-"'-*. -.' 



>_ *> 




■ : %.** 






:r-' 0** V^^V V'«.'-'y V'^'^^V 









> ^0 



^"•^t. -.^ 









•^'.o' 



J?**-. 









%/■ '■ 









»-°-n. 



WtRT 
BOOKBINOINC 

GranfMll* P( 

Jf' fet '.as? 






^°^^. 






